Glossary
Of Features
PHYSICAL
ATTRIBUTES
Enclosed Paper Roll
Most calculators (with the exception of
Monroe 7130, 7140, 7150, Classic, Pro and
Ultimate) have the paper roll mounted externally.
The most expensive component of a print/
display calculator is the printer. It is also the
component most likely to fail, as it is an
electro-mechanical mechanism. The most
common cause of printer failure is dust and dirt
collecting on the paper roll and falling into the
print mechanism as the paper is fed through
the printer. By enclosing the paper roll, Monroe
protects the paper roll and by extension the life
of the printer from this common cause of printer
failure. If the paper roll is external, it also means
paper roll holders (typically plastic) are mounted
externally to hold the paper roll. It is almost
certain these paper roll holders will be lost or
broken during the course of use. At the very
least, this design means the operator will be
forced to replace paper roll holders during the
life of the calculator, replace the calculator or
come up with some inventive method for
supporting the paper roll when the holders are
lost or broken.
Another drawback to mounting the paper roll
exter
nally is the typically cluttered desk of most
users. If the paper roll is lodged against a book,
stack of papers or some other object on the
desk, it is likely the paper cannot advance or
move thr
ough the print mechanism. As most
touch operators do not look at the calculator
during addition columns, such an operator
would be both surprised and disappointed to
look at the tape after listing a long column of
figures and see a black smudge on the tape
rather than the answer. Again the enclosed
paper roll design eliminates this possibility.The
expected life of the print mechanism is 2 million
lines of print. The enclosed paper roll enhances
the ability of the printer to reach its expected
life.
Print Quality
There are at least three factors affecting the
quality of print on the paper tape. The obvious
one of course is the ribbon. The other two com-
mon factors are the paper (thickness) and the
manufacturing variance of the printer (distance
between the platen and print wheel). Monroe
carefully selects both ribbon and paper supplies
to optimize print quality. While both supply items
are readily available, the quality of the ribbon
and the quality of the paper vary greatly when
obtained from sources other than Monroe.
Keyboard Layout
Today’s calculators are descended from
yesteryears mechanical adding machines. All
mechanical adding machines had all adding
machine controls (+, -, subtotal and total) to the
right of the numeric keypad. Recalling that the
most often used function of a calculator is
addition and subtraction, adding machine
controls must be located on the right of the
numeric keypad.
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Monro-Manual-1-50 1/26/10 6:08 PM Page 136
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